Fabulous ME!

I must first mention that you need to go visit the Normal Mormon Husband blog. I have a link on this blog so I can get there immediately. He is so funny and if you have not visited his blog, you really need to. If you have not visited his blog and read his Twilight Spoof (he wrote it right before the last book came out, so search accordingly), you REALLY need to!

Now, on to me. Some of you may know that I am part of a "Make Ahead Meals" group. That means that once, every 2-3 weeks, I make 10 meals. The same 10 meals. Then I meet with my friends and we trade our meals so we each go home with 10 different meals. Its fabulous. It would be easier if I could get into the freezer in the garage, but Dan likes to park his car in there and that effectively keeps me out of the freezer, unless I have planned ahead. This time, I am making a Shepherd's Pie. And today, I peeled and cubed 30 potatoes. Yes I did. 10 of those potatoes were sweet potatoes. See, its going to be ahealthy Shepherd's Pie! My wrist hurts, and the dirt from the taters is hitting my allergies. Scuse me, I need a Kleenex!

I am going to abruptly change the topic. I have a sewing machine. I like to sew. My talents however, are very limited. I can sew a straight line. I can follow very simple directions. I can make a great quilt. I cannot sew or alter clothing, which would be a helful thing to be able to do. Even with my severe limitations, I managed to do some pretty spiffy things!

It has gotten cold here. I hear that's what happens as winter approaches. Still, it was getting a bit chilly for me to be comfortable taking the girls out in the stroller for a run. The problem is that I need to run. I eat too much junk not to. So I decided to make a stroller blanket to keep their tootsies warm.

I know, it came out pretty cute! I got some fleece at Walmart and attached some velcro and straps to it and a wee bit of elastic down the front, and viola! It works really well at keeping the baby dolls from falling out too. There is no problem of blanket dragging on the ground or getting run over by the wheels, and the girls don't get so cold. I thought I was pretty cool.

When the temp dropped below 30 in the morning, I didn't think this was warm enough. I actually took a week of from running with the stroller. (Thank goodness for the elliptical machine!) Then I had another thought. I could make a plastic cover- like the rain covers. This would keep the warmth in, and keep the wind out, and the girls could still see out. So I went back to walmart and got some plastic, and I got to work.

This is my almost-finished product. I know, I am darn impressed to. You would be a little less impressed if you saw the stitches. I can't figure out why the tension is off, but it is, and the stitches are pretty awful on one side. I don't care, its for my stroller! Let me mention also how much I love this stroller. I got it about 4 years ago and I still love it and use it all the time. Its what we take on our trips and I've used it enough that the tires are nearly bald. I LOVE the swivel wheen in front. It does lock also, and I lock it to run. But the swivel makes it easy to get through doors, and on and off the Metro. I love it! And now back to my lovely stroller cover...

Here is the side view. I still need to trim and add an attaching thing to the bottom there, but I think it is pretty good. I didn't need it this morning, so I haven't tried it out yet, but I will.... oh yes, I will!

Hanging Out in DC

One of the lovely things about living here is the innumerable opportunities to see cool stuff. Friday we decided to get out and see something. Both Dan and I wanted to see Arlington, so we all went. I wasn't about to let him take Joshua and leave me behind!

The children were not impressed with Arlinton National Cemetery. They did think this statue was pretty cool, although I can't even remember who it was for.

And here is Marian crying that she doesn't want to walk. Yeah, she did that for a while- wailing and howling and refusing to walk. The kid is 5, for goodness sake!!

This was the part I really wanted to see- the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We got there in time to see the changing of the guard, which I thought was really cool.

This is how Joshua felt about it. Sigh.

They were quite a bit more impressed with this memorial for a ship. I do not know what made it so fascinating for them. And Joshua is trying out his new pose. You can't tell, but his cap is sitting off to the side. I guess he thinks he gone gangsta.

We finally got everyone back to the van- with all that walking, there was a lot of complaing and drama. We had lunch in the car and decided to go see the 9-11 Memorial, since it was just a short drive away.

Sorry, I guess its called the Pentagon Memorial. Dan had to explain the concept of the memorial for me. Its a little complicated. On the diagonal are years, and along each diagonal line are the things that represent the people born that year who died on 9-11 at the Pentagon.

I do not know why they look like benches, but they do. The ones pointing to the Pentagon represent the people on the plane. The ones facing away are for people who were killed in the Pentagon. Each bench thing has a name on it, and there is running water beneath them.

The kids had a really hard time not scuffing gravel into the water. Callie got grumpy because she got into trouble. Anyway, once I got the vision of the memorial, I liked it better. It also made it more personal and more sad for me. It was good for us to see it, although I don't think the kids got it at all.

And here is the Air Force Memorial. I didn't feel the need to get up close and park and get kids out, if it was the same thing up close. I can see it fine from here. I think it is pretty cool.

So, that is what we did on Friday to work off that Thanksgiving pie!

Thanksgiving Festivities

We had a great Thanksgiving! I was a little worried, since I was not familiar with Dan's cousin, and I had been hearing such horror stories from some of my friends about their relatives. I should have known better. Dan's family is fantastic, and his cousin was as wonderful as the rest that I've met. So, yes, we drove out to see Dan's cousin E and her husband for the great Turkey Feast.

Here they are, although I don't think E is really excited to have her picture taken. She put on a FANTASTIC spread!

Check this out... real, facny dishes and everything! I was impressed. Someday we might actually have fancy dishes, but for now, I just basked in the delight of someone else's beautiful stuff. There was a very tasty Turkey and all the trimmings. She did something wonderful with the butternut squash. It was all quite yummy. I brought pie and that also was very good. It was a really nice day. I felt bad that E did all the work and all the clean up and I just showed up and ate. She was amazing and did a marvelous job on dinner. I like her a lot. Her husband is pretty neat too.

We spent the afternoon and evening at their house and the kids were surprisingly good. They were delighted with the toys there, and that helped a lot. Joshua was in heaven with the table, legos, and cars that they had. Having "new" toys makes a difference and the kids were enthralled with what E had at her house.

Ah, yes, Marian and Callie tormented the poor cats and the cats were so sweet. They allowed Marian to haul (and maul!) them around and never scratched or got upset! I was very impressed. The girls were thrilled to have a captive pet for a while.

We tried to get a family picture before we left, but Callie was so done. She had a meltdown and refused to cooperate. Look how annoyed Dan is getting here, hee hee hee. Me and Joshua don't care! Callie can be pretty funny when she's mad. Unfortunately, it got a lot less funny. By the time we got home she was so tired and cranky she couldn't even stand herself and she got to go straight to bed. Other than that, it was an absolutely perfect day! Thank you E!

Twilight Mania

I did go out to see Twilight last night. A group from the ward went; several of us carpooled in and then we had to meet up with the others. That was a trick in itself!

This is what the theater looked like. It was utter chaos and madness. Lots of screaming teenagers and just a mass of hyper humanity all stuffed into this hall. It was showing on 3 screens, and 45 minutes before it started, this is what it looked like.

They opened the doors 30 minutes prior to the 7:55 showing and I honestly thought there might be a stampede, with all the screaming and shoving. (Apparently the police were called for an incident in one of the theaters, but not ours!) My friends and I ducked into the #7 theater, although our tickets were mostly for #1. We had great seats, and settled in to visit till the show started.

Yep, we chatted and giggled and had fun. You can see S wearing her Twilight shirt. They were going to get me one, but I said no.

Me with R & D. We had a great time talking while waiting, and waiting, and waiting. And we waited a lot. At 7:55, a police man came in and told us anyone too rowdy or out of line woul be removed. The employees assured us the movie would start soon..... but it didn't.

I had a great time visiting with D. She is really cool, and I can overlook the fact that she is gorgeous as well, and we can be friends. Still, it was an hour late that the movie finally started. And it had no sound for the first 5 minutes. Grrrr. On the plus side, when the movie was over, they handed out free passes. Yay!

So, what did I think? Not impressed. I liked "Edward" much better as Cedric Diggory. Not attractive in this movie. I had a really hard time with the movie because I did not find Edward attractive at all. Other than that, I think it was good. Some artistic license was taken, but I liked it overall. Okay, so Jacob went a little overboard on the teeth whitener, and a few other minor complaints.... I'll have to watch it again to decide how I really feel about it.

Being Tourists!

Today was Mommy-Joshua Date Day. Joshua wanted to go see the Memorials in DC. Nevermind that its the coldest day of the year so far. Yep, it was suppose to be around 35 degrees today, and with that rotten wind..... it was miserable. Joshua and I took the Metro in, and when we started walking in that fridgid wind, I asked if he'd prefer to go to the Smithsonian instead. Joshua said no, he wanted to see the Memorials. So off we went.

We were hoping that sense it was so cold, the wait for the Washington Memorial wouldn't be too bad. No such luck. At 12:30 they were already out of all the tickets for the day. So we just posed for pictures.



We saw this very inaccessable memorial. I think it was the John Paul Jones one. Just a statue of this man who was a War Hero back in the Revolutionary war..... I think.

Then it was on to the World War 2 Memorial. We didn't linger, since we spent a lot of time there last time. And it was cold. Did I say it was cold?

We stopped by the Korean War Memorial. I don't think I had seen this one before. It was pretty cool. I liked it a lot. Love my face in this shot. I was concentrating too hard on getting the camera at the right angle. I really wanted the soldiers in the memorial in the shot.

Joshua was starving and we needed something warm. We spent an exhorbant amount on hot cocoa and hot dogs and it was delicious! It was cool too, because the birds would perch 6 inches from you, waiting for you to drop crumbs.


This was the thing Joshua most wanted to see. Thank goodness it has an indoor part that's heated. That's where the bathrooms were as well. So we spent a bit of time warming up and checking out the stuff inside, before going up to see Lincoln.

We saw this fine, fat fellow looking for lunch in the trash. I handed him a sour patch kid, which he took from my fingers and here he is, snacking on it.

I did not know there was a memorial dedicated to the signers of the Declaration of Independance, but here it is. Pretty neat, they have the signature of each person engraved in stone. We posed in front of Thomas Jefferson's.

We had seen on the map that there was a Jefferson Stone. Well, this is it. No clue why it is important, but by golly, we found it because Joshua wanted to see it.

And this concludes our trip to Washington DC. Which, if I may mention, took us 5 hours from steping on the Metro, to finding the car, which I lost briefly. And did I tell you how COLD it was?!! Freezing cold!